Sunday, August 29, 2010

Australians like the Queen

SYDNEY — Support for Australia becoming a republic has slumped to a 16-year-low, according to the results of a poll released Sunday which found that one-in-three people never want to break ties with Britain.

Asked whether Australia should become a republic, 48 percent of the 1,400 polled said they wanted to keep things as they are for now -- with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

While 44 percent said they supported a constitutional change at some point, the Nielsen poll published in The Sun-Herald found that this figure had dropped some eight percent since a 2008 survey.

Thirty-one percent said Australia should never become a republic while 34 percent said Australia should become a republic after the reign of the Queen, for whom Australians have an enduring affection, and 29 percent said they wanted a republic as soon as possible.